Norbert Jurček

* 1943

  • "They sent Burda to Grandma Jana, which was a dress magazine, a fashion magazine. And inside my cousin gave me, because he is an Apache, a great person, he put in there what they write in Germany about our Republic, what they write about the communists and so on. And, of course, he underlined some things for me, whereupon I spent 48 hours in Přívoz behind barred windows in a cell to see if I was a spy. Because they thought the underlining was some kind of code or that we were somehow corresponding. After those 48 hours, they concluded that it probably was not."

  • "We were digging, digging - and suddenly we found that we had cut the cable. When I saw it was white, I was shaking, not from that, but from how it worked. Suddenly the cops, the State Security and everybody, including the soldiers, so they came to the construction site. I was immediately locked up in the office, and so on and so forth. And now they were discussing it. Fortunately, I had everything in order, as was my custom. The paperwork has been terribly important all my life – and the document parts. So, I came out of it with a clean slate, but it was quite a rumble."

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    Ostrava, 12.09.2014

    (audio)
    duration: 03:03:26
    media recorded in project Soutěž Příběhy 20. století
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As a half-German, he was an enemy to other children after the war

Norbert Jurček in the first half of the 1960s as a soldier during the compulsory military service
Norbert Jurček in the first half of the 1960s as a soldier during the compulsory military service
photo: soutěž

Norbert Jurček was born on 3 July 1943 in Grünstadt in Rhineland-Palatinate to a Czech-German couple. In 1949 they moved to Ostrava. His origins caused him problems at first, but he overcame them with diligence and determination. He became a top athlete, a footballer. After his sporting career, he worked as a construction engineer and was instrumental in the creation of many buildings at home and abroad. In 2014, he lived in his house in Ostrava.